If I’m Still At Peace After Being Ticked Off, That Makes It OK, Right?

I’ve found myself at a much more peaceful state lately. Physiologically I just feel great: mind, body, and spirit.

Apparently, though, that doesn’t prevent me from yelling out loud at drivers who don’t use blinkers; or those who pull out to make a left turn even when traffic was going, completely blocking the oncoming lane (every city or town has their own things like this when it comes to driving…this is Cleveland’s contribution).

It happens. I gripe. But then I move on and peace continues…at least in this current state that I’m in.

I guess my idealistic expectation was that if I’m at peace, NOTHING would bother me at all. But as I think about it, that’s just not how things work. Let’s face it: life happens. And if nothing bothered us then we’d have no motivation to change anything for the better.

This reminds me of a religious debate I had once on anger as a sin. We all agreed that anger isn’t a good thing, yet Jesus expressed it himself when he went nuts on the money-changers in the Temple. “Well that was Jesus,” we concluded. “If anyone was justified in an action, it was him.”

But labeling anger as a sin is like labeling sex as a sin. Meaning, it’s not. What’s wrong is the abuse of sex; or the abuse of anger. So I think it was quite natural for me to be honked off at bad driving, but only if I can let it go. It must not have sway over me.